Nursing majors defend the profession and pursuit of facts: Siobhan Tellez

It is important to remember that when opinions are publically expressed, one must assure the conclusions are based in legitimacy for such opinions to avoid rejection and, further, positively affect the community. The article included no true citations, providing no direction toward the resources from which opinions were drawn, thus leaving it unsupported. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy assesses the quality of the successful persuasive argument and states: "Persuasion that takes place before a public audience is not only a matter of arguments and proofs, but also of credibility and emotional attitudes." Additionally, the text defined neither profession, depriving the reader from using comparison to draw his or her own conclusions. Once again the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy writes that the persuasive declaration "must include both sides of an issue" in its framework for any conclusion drawn to hold credibility. The end result was a weak, unsupported article that negatively impacted a large population at this university.  What a shame, because if the author had spent time evaluating The New York Times article that must piqued her interest, constructed the appropriate framework and fleshed it with true research and consideration and if that had been the article in The Heights, the nursing students and faculty might have considered her ideas as a new perspective, instead of vehemently highlighting the gross misrepresentation of their profession.

Siobhan Tellez

CSON '13